The present invention relates to the field of vehicle devices, and, more particularly, to a tracking and alerting system for a vehicle.
Motor vehicles, such as passenger cars, trucks, busses, fleet vehicles, etc. are widely used and knowing the locations of such vehicles is often desired. For example, should a vehicle be stolen, it would be beneficial to know the vehicle""s location so that authorities could be promptly and accurately directed to retrieve the vehicle. Indeed, the tracking system could plot the getaway path of the thief.
For a company with hired drivers, it may be desirable to know the driver""s whereabouts during the course of the day. Similarly, a rental car agency or other fleet operator, for example, may wish to know the whereabouts of its fleet of vehicles.
It may also be desirable to track the location of a vehicle as it is used throughout the course of a normal day. For parents of younger or older drivers, for example, knowledge of the vehicle""s location may provide some assurance that the driver is at designated locations and following a prescribed route.
A number of patents disclose various systems and approaches to tracking vehicles. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,844 discloses a tracking system including a control center and a mobile unit installed in the vehicle. The mobile unit may send security warnings to the command center via a wireless transceiver. Position information for the vehicle is determined using a GPS receiver at the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,043 discloses a similar system which may send one or more preprogrammed telephone messages to a user when away from the vehicle. The user may remotely access location information or cause certain commands to be carried out by entering a personal identification number (PIN).
The widespread availability and use of the Internet has prompted a number of vehicle tracking systems to also make use of the Internet. For example, TelEvoke, Inc. proposed such a system in combination with Clifford Electronics. The system was to provide notification, control and tracking services via the telephone or the Internet. Users could be notified via phone, e-mail, or pager of events such as a car alarm being triggered. Users could control the vehicle remote devices via phone, web, or PDA such as unlocking car doors. Additionally, users could track TelEvoke-enabled vehicles on the Internet or via the telephone. An Internet map could be viewed by the user showing the actual and prior vehicle locations. TelEvoke offered its services via a centralized fully automated Network Operations Center. To reduce the communications costs, it was proposed to use the control channel of the cellular telephone network.
Many conventional vehicle tracking units include many input and output connections. Accordingly, such units may be difficult to install in a vehicle. This is especially so since the space available to access and connect to vehicle wires is likely to be restricted. Accordingly, errors in the initial installation may occur. Accurate diagnosis of any such errors may be time consuming and add further to the installation costs. Maintenance of an installed system may also be complicated if each connection must be individually checked and rechecked.
In view of the foregoing background, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle tracking unit which may allow greater flexibility for limiting wireless communications charges and power consumption.
This and other objects, features, and advantages in accordance with the present invention are provided by a vehicle tracking unit which may include a vehicle position determining device, a wireless communications device, and a controller cooperating with the wireless communications device and the vehicle position determining device for determining and periodically sending vehicle position information to a monitoring station. Furthermore, the controller may vary a period between successive sendings of vehicle position information based upon a triggering event.
More particularly, the triggering event may include a vehicle speed exceeding a threshold, a period change signal from the monitoring station, and/or the passing of time. Additionally, the controller may include a memory for storing the vehicle position information, and the triggering event may also include the memory reaching a predetermined capacity.
Thus, based upon such triggering events, the frequency with which the wireless communications device is required to send the vehicle position information may advantageously be reduced, for example. This may correspondingly result in less wireless communications charges being incurred, as well as reduction in power consumption by the wireless communications device. The latter may be particularly important when the vehicle""s engine is not running and excessive power consumption may significantly drain the vehicle battery, for example. Of course, the period between successive sendings of vehicle position information may also be decreased based upon a triggering event, which may be helpful for police while tracking a stolen, moving vehicle, for example.
By way of example, the vehicle position determining device may be a Global Positioning System (GPS) device. Further, the vehicle tracking unit may also include at least one visual indicator cooperating with the GPS device for indicating a number of GPS satellites currently accessible. Also, the wireless communications device may be a cellular telephone communications device, for example, and at least one visual indicator may be included for cooperating with the cellular telephone communications device for indicating communications with a cellular base station.
A vehicle tracking method aspect of the invention may include determining vehicle position information for a vehicle, periodically sending vehicle position information to a monitoring station, and varying a period between successive sendings of vehicle position information based upon a triggering event.